Steve Austin On His Friendship With CM Punk, Talks WWE’s Sale to Endeavor, More

Steve Austin recently talked about his friendship with CM Punk, WWE’s sale to Endeavor and more. Austin spoke with Forbes for a new interview, and you can check out some highlights below:

On CM Punk’s current situation: “Man, I just sent Punk a message last night. I didn’t know he had torn his triceps. I haven’t been following anything. I don’t know what’s going on with that. Me and Phil trade messages every here and there. We rarely talk, probably once or twice a year. I love the guy, and I don’t even know if I mentored him because Punk’s probably a lot smarter than I am. Great promo guy, great worker, he’s got his own thing going and we’re just friends. So I think I remember there’s a picture of myself and him from Chicago, my favorite town to work in, my favorite building. And I guess he had come down to where we were all hanging out. Maybe he looked up to me back in the day, but I don’t know if I so much mentored him because I think he paid his own dues. He learned it the way he did and he got over on his own merits. The fact that maybe I could have been somewhat of an influence would be flattering if that were the case. But he’s made his own career.

“But I don’t even know what’s going on with the current situation or what they’re doing because right now I rarely watch any of the product. I watch all the pay-per-views and major pay-per-views, but he’s certainly carved out a hellacious career in his own right by his own right.”

On how WWE’s sale to Endeavor will change the business: “I don’t know that it’s gonna change. Because I did see Triple H go out there and say, ‘hey man, we’re not going anywhere.’ Meaning that group of collective individuals, which is driving the product. It seems to me that it is more about the brand so much than the individual people, but there are certainly those key individual people: Roman, Brock, Cody coming up being a big part of the reason why that brand is working. So I think it is more brand-based, but you’ve got to have the talent that can make that brand fly. And that goes back to the individuals. If you don’t have great individual talent, and I didn’t even mention the great women on the roster, but if you ain’t got great talent, that brand don’t mean anything. I agree with what you’re saying, though. It is more brand-based, but you’ve got to have those superstars to drive that brand and they’re really good at creating superstars.”

On his favorite non-wrestling shows that he’s done: “That Broken Skull Challenge was a hell of a show. And going out there with some of the best athletes in America and pushing them. And these are people, men and women, who are pushing themselves already to the absolute limit. They’re out there performing for America and me on their ass to try to bring out even more of them. So that was a show that I really loved. The subway was 50 miles from my house, so I’d go out there on Sunday evening so I didn’t have to fight traffic. And it had a big camper for me. I took my chocolate lab Hershey out there with me, and so we’d filmed the show and then I’d hang out all week and then I’d go home on Friday evening. So just due to a lifestyle kind of thing and the competitive nature of that show, I really enjoyed that.”

On whether he prefers hosting or being the subject of a show: “I like being the subject, but you know, only when we’re doing things that I wanna be subjected too. Some of the stuff was uncomfortable. And I think my vision of the show was ‘hey, we undertake on a journey of learning how to really perfect driving a race car.’ And it’s over the course of the show, that story is told. So these are a lot of different things going on in the show, so they’re like kind of quick hits. I’m enjoying the show, it’s just different and it’s challenging when you try to film a show without a pilot, and so you’re not seeing anything. In essence, in a Season 1, you’re throwing a lot of stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks.

“I’m not getting a chance to see what’s sticking and what’s not, or what I need to modify. For a guy like me who’s been used to working in front of a live crowd, I rely on that feedback to make my next decision. I didn’t have that feedback to make my next decision. What do I need to do? Do I need to change anything? Because I’ve hosted so much and used to be in the podcast business, I am good at facilitating. So, the challenge for me was finding out that, ‘hey man, I’m not being Stone Cold. Who am I trying to find my voice for the show? And what are we trying to do here?’ We’re trying to really be humorous. We’re trying to tell stories. I had to find myself during the show and that was challenging for me.”